Published: Sunday, August 18, 2013 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, August 17, 2013 at 9:16 p.m.

Eighth Street Elementary School teacher Allison Phillips scurried around her fifth-grade classroom last week, finalizing bulletin boards and sorting through school supplies.

Across the hall, 30-year veteran fifth-grade teacher Suzi Stickley worked on lesson plans for the 2013-14 school year, which begins Monday.

Both women are state certified and highly qualified to teach fifth grade. They attend the same staff meetings, get the same training, follow the same basic schedule.

But there is one big, albeit hidden, difference: Phillips is a full-time substitute; she is paid about half the salary of a first-year teacher and gets no health insurance benefits.

Phillips is what the Marion County School District calls a long-term certified substitute, about 100 of whom will be teaching this year.

Certified subs must have bachelor's degrees and state teaching certifications. They get paid $100 per day, roughly $18,000 per year.

Parents and students probably can't tell, just from appearances, which teachers are full-time and which are certified subs. In most cases the district isn't even obliged to say who's whom.

Most people agree that the subs work hard. They are professionals, and many are trying to prove they are worthy of a full-time contract should a position open locally or elsewhere. “They are teachers just like any of us,” Stickley said.

But there are potential concerns.

The certified subs might be more likely to leave during the school year if a job opens elsewhere. Such moves can disrupt the delicate balance principals must achieve when staffing classrooms and keeping students on pace in an era of rigorous state testing and school grading.

“Why would they put out their best effort?” asked Denise Bizjack, a veteran second-grade teacher at Dr. N.H. Jones Elementary School.

The big question remains: As far as students go, is there a discernible difference between a full-time teacher's effectiveness and that of a certified sub?

It turns out there is little state data on the subject, probably because Marion is the first Florida county to use full-time subs on a large scale instead of only for filling in gaps.

Wayne Blanton, the executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, called Marion County a “trailblazer” in that regard.

District administrators say they wish they didn't have to use so many subs. But the move is saving $1.8 million in a cash-strapped budget year.

■ ■ ■

South Ocala Elementary School parent and volunteer Marsha Tripp said she never knows from year to year which teachers are full time and which are certified subs.

If anyone would know, it would be Tripp: She is co-president of the Parent Teacher Organization.

“I know my children have not had one so far,” said Tripp, who will have her children, a first-grader and a fourth-grader, at South Ocala beginning Monday.

Tripp said she would have been told if any of her children had been taught by a substitute. But actually, so long as subs are certified in the proper field, the district is not obliged to tell parents.

Officials said that if children are getting a teacher with the same qualifications as a full-time teacher, then the only difference between the two is the title.

Lisa Krysalka, the district's executive director of human resources, said the district is only required to inform parents if their child's teacher is teaching “out of area” — a teacher who is technically not qualified to teach a subject. That applies to full-time teachers as well.

For example, the district must inform parents if a full-time teacher certified to teach physics is assigned to teach biology.

Tripp said that if her child were assigned a certified substitute teacher it would not necessarily be a deal breaker.

“I would want to see how well my child did at the beginning of the year before I made up my mind,” she said.

The school district doesn't think she would find a big difference.

“In terms of teaching the students, I have not found that certified subs are any less dedicated or prepared in the classroom,” said Rick Lankford, the deputy superintendent over curriculum.

Indeed, “unless someone told you, you would never know they are a (certified) substitute,” Stickley said.

It's been 10 years since Stickley's Eighth Street colleague, Phillips, taught school in Clay County. She stayed home with her young children and decided recently it was time to go back to work.

Phillips' children attend Eighth Street, where she has volunteered for years and knows the staff. She applied as a way to get her foot back in the door.

“I am already invested in this school,” Phillips said. “I look at it like it is an internship, a way for me to get into teaching after being out for a long time.”

Phillips has a state elementary education certification to teach grades one through six. It has expired, though the state issued a temporary one while she updates her training — which happens from time to time to full-time teachers as well.

John McCollum, principal at both Eighth Street Elementary and Osceola Middle School, speaks highly of the certified substitutes he has hired.

McCollum said the district asked principals to hire certified substitutes to fill the first two openings at the schools.

Romeo Elementary School Principal Jane Ashman said she found two long-term substitutes who were both state certified and highly qualified.

Certified means the state has granted them a certificate for their expertise, and highly qualified means they have taken training in other required areas, like ESOL (English as a Second Language.)

“The bottom line is they need a job even if it is for much less (compensation) than a full-time teacher,” Ashman said.

She has found that certified substitutes work very hard because “they are dedicated to children and education.”

“Plus, they are hoping to be hired full time,” she noted.

“They would definitely have a leg up (getting hired) with me because I have actually seen them perform in the classroom,” she said.

■ ■ ■

Lisa Russo, a concerned parent, said the widespread use of certified substitutes is unacceptable.

“How can you (the school district) justify this action?” Russo wrote in a letter to the Star-Banner. “It is as if you went to a surgeon's office and got the intern for the procedure.”

Russo taught art for seven years at Lake Weir Middle School, leaving in 2004. She said in a recent interview that the practice of using certified subs in lieu of full-time teachers must stop.

“We need to raise the bar, not lower it,” she said.

Many veteran teachers agree. Though most teachers support the dedication of certified substitutes, they believe the district's practice is a morale killer — and not necessarily good for the children.

Bizjack, a 30-year educator, said parents need to ask whether their child's teacher is working full time or as a certified substitute.

Like many full-time teachers, she questions whether the district is actually using certified teachers in all the certified substitute positions.

“I think people need to ask to see the certification,” Bizjack said.

She said she cannot comprehend the district's belief that these “$100-per-day certified substitutes will actually be totally committed to teaching.”

Union representatives and at least two School Board members are also unsettled by the issue. Though not denigrating any individual sub, they suspect the lack of experience of some substitutes could be negatively affecting student test scores and school grades, and indirectly hurting the evaluations of many full-time teachers.

Board member Ron Crawford joined fellow member Nancy Stacy last week in vowing to find money to fill the certified substitute positions with full-time teachers.

“I think we need to take a close look at this,” Crawford said.

■ ■ ■

For the past five years or so, the district has been using certified subs to save money during harsh economic times. Last year, the district employed as many as 75, though the official end count was 53.

In 2013-14, the district plans to use even more and save about $1.8 million.

Crawford spent the past week or so trying to determine the effect of long-term certified subs on classroom performance. Though he says his data collection is not 100 percent complete, he has spotted a trend.

The schools with the highest number of certified subs got D grades from the state.

Marion Oaks Elementary, which had a D grade, had five certified substitutes — tied for most in the district.

“Reddick-Collier had five (certified substitutes), and it received a C,” he noted.

Crawford said he realizes many factors affect student test scores and, by extension, school grades. Economic status is one such factor.

“I am concerned about the impact of certified substitutes on the classroom. I think we need to take a hard look at how we are distributing them around the county,” he said.

Crawford said schools outside Ocala city limits had a higher rate of certified substitutes than schools within 10 miles of downtown Ocala. City schools on average outperform rural schools, he said.

Crawford said that during the 2012-13 school year, schools within the city limits had an average of 1.3 certified subs per school at some point while schools outside the city limits averaged two per school.

Schools earning A and B grades had very few, if any, certified substitutes.

“These A and B schools can absorb the impact of a (certified) substitute more so than a school that is already struggling,” he said.

■ ■ ■

The Marion Education Association, the teachers' union, has been walking a tightrope on this issue. Union leaders support certified substitutes in terms of work ethic and value, but they still question their effectiveness.

MEA officials say that, as it stands, there really is no way to know the true impact of certified substitutes.

They highlight the fact that the substitutes are not evaluated the same way as full-time teachers.

The state and district use student FCAT performance, including learning gains, when evaluating full-time teachers.

Full-time teachers whose students do not take a state test as part of their class curriculum are evaluated using the school's average FCAT score and learning gain tabulations.

Because student scores are not used to evaluate a certified substitute, the union says there is no real accountability. The actions of substitutes could, indirectly, negatively affect the evaluations of full-time teachers.

The substitutes' student scores count toward the school's average. The union argues that the scores could drag down the schoolwide score used to evaluate many full-time teachers.

MEA officials analyzed certified substitute data from 2011-12. They found that these substitutes appear to be affecting what's known as the Value Added Model (VAM).

A teacher's VAM score is based on students' FCAT scores and learning gains, as well as other classroom data.

At 30 schools that did not have a certified substitute teaching, the average VAM score in 2011-12 was 2.80.

At 11 schools that had only one certified substitute, the VAM dropped to 2.55.

At four schools that had three subs teaching, the VAM was 2.5.

And at two schools with three or more subs, the VAM fell to 2.0.

Like Crawford, union officials acknowledge there are many factors that affect a child's test-taking abilities and, by extension, the data used for teacher evaluations. They also concede that the data need to be studied in depth.

However, Altobello said the union does not want the evaluations of the full-time teachers it represents affected by the non-union substitutes.

Recently, the union lost an unfair labor practice dispute against the district in regard to the use of the certified substitutes. The MEA is challenging that decision.

Contact Joe Callahan at 867-4113 or joe.callahan@starbanner.com. Follow him on Twitter at JoeOcalaNews.

<p>Eighth Street Elementary School teacher Allison Phillips scurried around her fifth-grade classroom last week, finalizing bulletin boards and sorting through school supplies.</p><p>Across the hall, 30-year veteran fifth-grade teacher Suzi Stickley worked on lesson plans for the 2013-14 school year, which begins Monday.</p><p>Both women are state certified and highly qualified to teach fifth grade. They attend the same staff meetings, get the same training, follow the same basic schedule.</p><p>But there is one big, albeit hidden, difference: Phillips is a full-time substitute; she is paid about half the salary of a first-year teacher and gets no health insurance benefits.</p><p>Phillips is what the Marion County School District calls a long-term certified substitute, about 100 of whom will be teaching this year.</p><p>Certified subs must have bachelor's degrees and state teaching certifications. They get paid $100 per day, roughly $18,000 per year.</p><p>Parents and students probably can't tell, just from appearances, which teachers are full-time and which are certified subs. In most cases the district isn't even obliged to say who's whom.</p><p>Most people agree that the subs work hard. They are professionals, and many are trying to prove they are worthy of a full-time contract should a position open locally or elsewhere. “They are teachers just like any of us,” Stickley said.</p><p>But there are potential concerns.</p><p>The certified subs might be more likely to leave during the school year if a job opens elsewhere. Such moves can disrupt the delicate balance principals must achieve when staffing classrooms and keeping students on pace in an era of rigorous state testing and school grading.</p><p>Then there's human nature. Some full-time teachers wonder — publicly — whether the paltry compensation has an effect on certified subs' performance.</p><p>“Why would they put out their best effort?” asked Denise Bizjack, a veteran second-grade teacher at Dr. N.H. Jones Elementary School.</p><p>The big question remains: As far as students go, is there a discernible difference between a full-time teacher's effectiveness and that of a certified sub?</p><p>It turns out there is little state data on the subject, probably because Marion is the first Florida county to use full-time subs on a large scale instead of only for filling in gaps.</p><p>Wayne Blanton, the executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, called Marion County a “trailblazer” in that regard.</p><p>District administrators say they wish they didn't have to use so many subs. But the move is saving $1.8 million in a cash-strapped budget year.</p><p>■ ■ ■</p><p>South Ocala Elementary School parent and volunteer Marsha Tripp said she never knows from year to year which teachers are full time and which are certified subs.</p><p>If anyone would know, it would be Tripp: She is co-president of the Parent Teacher Organization.</p><p>“I know my children have not had one so far,” said Tripp, who will have her children, a first-grader and a fourth-grader, at South Ocala beginning Monday.</p><p>Tripp said she would have been told if any of her children had been taught by a substitute. But actually, so long as subs are certified in the proper field, the district is not obliged to tell parents.</p><p>Officials said that if children are getting a teacher with the same qualifications as a full-time teacher, then the only difference between the two is the title.</p><p>Lisa Krysalka, the district's executive director of human resources, said the district is only required to inform parents if their child's teacher is teaching “out of area” — a teacher who is technically not qualified to teach a subject. That applies to full-time teachers as well.</p><p>For example, the district must inform parents if a full-time teacher certified to teach physics is assigned to teach biology.</p><p>Tripp said that if her child were assigned a certified substitute teacher it would not necessarily be a deal breaker.</p><p>“I would want to see how well my child did at the beginning of the year before I made up my mind,” she said.</p><p>The school district doesn't think she would find a big difference.</p><p>“In terms of teaching the students, I have not found that certified subs are any less dedicated or prepared in the classroom,” said Rick Lankford, the deputy superintendent over curriculum.</p><p>Indeed, “unless someone told you, you would never know they are a (certified) substitute,” Stickley said.</p><p>It's been 10 years since Stickley's Eighth Street colleague, Phillips, taught school in Clay County. She stayed home with her young children and decided recently it was time to go back to work.</p><p>Phillips' children attend Eighth Street, where she has volunteered for years and knows the staff. She applied as a way to get her foot back in the door.</p><p>“I am already invested in this school,” Phillips said. “I look at it like it is an internship, a way for me to get into teaching after being out for a long time.”</p><p>Phillips has a state elementary education certification to teach grades one through six. It has expired, though the state issued a temporary one while she updates her training — which happens from time to time to full-time teachers as well.</p><p>John McCollum, principal at both Eighth Street Elementary and Osceola Middle School, speaks highly of the certified substitutes he has hired.</p><p>McCollum said the district asked principals to hire certified substitutes to fill the first two openings at the schools.</p><p>Romeo Elementary School Principal Jane Ashman said she found two long-term substitutes who were both state certified and highly qualified.</p><p>Certified means the state has granted them a certificate for their expertise, and highly qualified means they have taken training in other required areas, like ESOL (English as a Second Language.)</p><p>“The bottom line is they need a job even if it is for much less (compensation) than a full-time teacher,” Ashman said.</p><p>She has found that certified substitutes work very hard because “they are dedicated to children and education.”</p><p>“Plus, they are hoping to be hired full time,” she noted.</p><p>“They would definitely have a leg up (getting hired) with me because I have actually seen them perform in the classroom,” she said.</p><p>■ ■ ■</p><p>Lisa Russo, a concerned parent, said the widespread use of certified substitutes is unacceptable.</p><p>“How can you (the school district) justify this action?” Russo wrote in a letter to the Star-Banner. “It is as if you went to a surgeon's office and got the intern for the procedure.”</p><p>Russo taught art for seven years at Lake Weir Middle School, leaving in 2004. She said in a recent interview that the practice of using certified subs in lieu of full-time teachers must stop.</p><p>“We need to raise the bar, not lower it,” she said.</p><p>Many veteran teachers agree. Though most teachers support the dedication of certified substitutes, they believe the district's practice is a morale killer — and not necessarily good for the children.</p><p>Bizjack, a 30-year educator, said parents need to ask whether their child's teacher is working full time or as a certified substitute.</p><p>Like many full-time teachers, she questions whether the district is actually using certified teachers in all the certified substitute positions.</p><p>“I think people need to ask to see the certification,” Bizjack said.</p><p>She said she cannot comprehend the district's belief that these “$100-per-day certified substitutes will actually be totally committed to teaching.”</p><p>Union representatives and at least two School Board members are also unsettled by the issue. Though not denigrating any individual sub, they suspect the lack of experience of some substitutes could be negatively affecting student test scores and school grades, and indirectly hurting the evaluations of many full-time teachers.</p><p>Board member Ron Crawford joined fellow member Nancy Stacy last week in vowing to find money to fill the certified substitute positions with full-time teachers.</p><p>“I think we need to take a close look at this,” Crawford said.</p><p>■ ■ ■</p><p>For the past five years or so, the district has been using certified subs to save money during harsh economic times. Last year, the district employed as many as 75, though the official end count was 53.</p><p>In 2013-14, the district plans to use even more and save about $1.8 million.</p><p>Crawford spent the past week or so trying to determine the effect of long-term certified subs on classroom performance. Though he says his data collection is not 100 percent complete, he has spotted a trend.</p><p>The schools with the highest number of certified subs got D grades from the state.</p><p>Marion Oaks Elementary, which had a D grade, had five certified substitutes — tied for most in the district.</p><p>“Reddick-Collier had five (certified substitutes), and it received a C,” he noted.</p><p>Crawford said he realizes many factors affect student test scores and, by extension, school grades. Economic status is one such factor.</p><p>“I am concerned about the impact of certified substitutes on the classroom. I think we need to take a hard look at how we are distributing them around the county,” he said.</p><p>Crawford said schools outside Ocala city limits had a higher rate of certified substitutes than schools within 10 miles of downtown Ocala. City schools on average outperform rural schools, he said.</p><p>Crawford said that during the 2012-13 school year, schools within the city limits had an average of 1.3 certified subs per school at some point while schools outside the city limits averaged two per school.</p><p>Schools earning A and B grades had very few, if any, certified substitutes.</p><p>“These A and B schools can absorb the impact of a (certified) substitute more so than a school that is already struggling,” he said.</p><p>■ ■ ■</p><p>The Marion Education Association, the teachers' union, has been walking a tightrope on this issue. Union leaders support certified substitutes in terms of work ethic and value, but they still question their effectiveness.</p><p>MEA officials say that, as it stands, there really is no way to know the true impact of certified substitutes.</p><p>Like Crawford, MEA President Chris Altobello and Executive Director Craig Ham compiled data that raise questions.</p><p>They highlight the fact that the substitutes are not evaluated the same way as full-time teachers.</p><p>The state and district use student FCAT performance, including learning gains, when evaluating full-time teachers.</p><p>Full-time teachers whose students do not take a state test as part of their class curriculum are evaluated using the school's average FCAT score and learning gain tabulations.</p><p>Because student scores are not used to evaluate a certified substitute, the union says there is no real accountability. The actions of substitutes could, indirectly, negatively affect the evaluations of full-time teachers.</p><p>The substitutes' student scores count toward the school's average. The union argues that the scores could drag down the schoolwide score used to evaluate many full-time teachers.</p><p>MEA officials analyzed certified substitute data from 2011-12. They found that these substitutes appear to be affecting what's known as the Value Added Model (VAM).</p><p>A teacher's VAM score is based on students' FCAT scores and learning gains, as well as other classroom data.</p><p>At 30 schools that did not have a certified substitute teaching, the average VAM score in 2011-12 was 2.80.</p><p>At 11 schools that had only one certified substitute, the VAM dropped to 2.55.</p><p>At four schools that had three subs teaching, the VAM was 2.5.</p><p>And at two schools with three or more subs, the VAM fell to 2.0.</p><p>Like Crawford, union officials acknowledge there are many factors that affect a child's test-taking abilities and, by extension, the data used for teacher evaluations. They also concede that the data need to be studied in depth.</p><p>However, Altobello said the union does not want the evaluations of the full-time teachers it represents affected by the non-union substitutes. </p><p>Recently, the union lost an unfair labor practice dispute against the district in regard to the use of the certified substitutes. The MEA is challenging that decision.</p><p><i>Contact Joe Callahan at 867-4113 or joe.callahan@starbanner.com. Follow him on Twitter at JoeOcalaNews.</i></p>